I was thinking about putting together a trivia book about Disney films.
I don’t think I need permission from the folks over at the Mouse House to put the book together. However, I was wondering about adding pictures from some of the movies. Would I need to get their OK for that? What about if I quoted a few lines from the movie? Would the folks over at Disney be able to sue me if I quoted a few lines or added some pix?
Zev Steinhardt
Whether or not they have a winnable or non-frivilous case will not prevent Disney from suing you into the Stone Age should they choose to do so. The joy of our tort system…
Adding pictures is likely to cause serious problems without permission. I would compose a very professional sounding letter, explaining exactly what you want to use, your context in using it, your Q&E, and your ultimate purpose. And if they say “No”, then I would not use any non-public domain images from them.
Quoting lines from a movie is much, much less riskier. What I would do is look closely at examples of “fair use” on the US Copyright web site, and I would also look to what other trivia/Disney-related books do, to use as both a guideline and a possible “defense” for your level of quotation.
IANAL, you can probably quote a few lines under the “Fair Use” provision, but woe betide you if you start using Mickey Mouse’s image in your book.
I’m sure the publisher of the book would warn you anyway.
Possibly you can make this someone else’s problem by approaching a propspective publisher and letting them work it out.
Alternatively, sell Disney on the idea of a series of trivia books as publicity for their own product - problem solved.
The most thorough fair use site seems to be www.fairuse.stanford.edu
Disney is notorious in the field for viciously, er, strongly protecting its trademarks. They will sue you, guaranteed. I’d be amazed if you could get past the lawyers at any large publishing firm to do an unauthorized book on any aspect of Disney. Pictures would be a red flag.
I checked and found a half dozen Disney trivia books on Amazon. All the ones that had information attached appeared to be by people with a connection to Disney. I didn’t see any based on the films themselves, though.
There may be a niche here for a film trivia book, but my guess, informed but still a guess, is that you would run into legal difficulties. You may be able to legally get away with a pure text book of questions, making sure that you noted all trademarks and copyrights and saying prominently that the book was not authorized and had no connection with Disney, but finding a publisher may be a problem.
I see on Preview that several others have jumped in while I was writing this. Yes, your best bet is to work with Disney. You don’t want them as an antagonist.